Kolkata: The prime accused in the American Centre case, Aftab Ansari, also linked to British born terrorist Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was sentenced to death for the slaying of American journalist Daniel Pearl, and eight others were produced in a session court.

Chief judge, city civil and sessions court, Kolkata, remanded them to jail custody till July 19 and ordered their production on that date.

The case relating to the firing by motorcycle borne terrorists on January 22 at the American Centre, which left five policemen dead, was earlier committed for sessions trial on July 2 by the chief metropolitan magistrate.

Ansari, alias Farhan Malik, who had had earlier confessed to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Delhi of having given money to Omar Sheikh several times, is also the prime accused in the kidnapping of shoe baron Parthapration Roy Burman in Kolkata, diamond merchant Bhaskar Parekh in Gujarat and the attempted kidnapping of Kolkata-based businessman Ganesh Mahalingam.

Ansari, with alleged links to the Laskar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Harkat-ul- Jehadi, is also involved in attempting to smuggle in explosives, including RDX in Gujarat, as well as a conspiracy to blow up the Howrah Bridge and the Howrah Railway station.

He was arrested at Dubai a day after the American Centre attack as he was about to board a flight for Islamabad. He was handed over to the CBI in February.

PTI